How Certain the Journey
by lovablegeek
Summary: S1 - Some things Rose likes to keep to herself. Women Wept is one of them. NineRoseJack - One shot


It was called Women Wept, and Rose always loved that name, not just for the shape of the continent, but because the name was just as sad and beautiful as the planet himself. She always talked about the beach, the towering waves of ice, a whole raging storm frozen in an instant. She never told the whole story – not to Mickey or Jackie or anyone. Some things she kept to herself.

She never told anyone that shortly after they got there, she noticed dark shapes moving across the ice, coming toward them, and by the time any of them figured out what they _were_ - once sledge dogs, now feral and apparently bloody _hungry_ - the three of them had to turn and run for their lives. It was a common theme of life with the Doctor, she'd informed Jack. Running. He didn't seem too encouraged by that.

She didn't tell people that Jack killed two of the dogs with his sonic blaster before the Doctor knocked it out of his hand, though not quickly enough. The remaining dogs yelped and scattered, and the three of them watched as the sonic shockwave hit wall after all of ice, and one by one, slowly, gracefully, the frozen waves shivered and collapsed – one of them directly onto the TARDIS. The Doctor said nothing, just tossed the blaster across the ice with an expression black as storm clouds, and Jack didn't even try chasing after it.

She didn't ever mention the way the three of them huddled in a tiny ice cave, Jack curled around Rose for warmth, the Doctor hunched into his coat, arms folded over his chest and seemingly unaffected by the cold. Jack had draped his coat over both of them, and while she started the night with her back against his chest, at some point she rolled over and buried her face into his neck, nuzzling against his collarbone. Jack froze for a second, like he expected the Doctor to break his neck if he tried anything, then tightened his arms around her, pressing his lips to the top of her head.

She didn't give the slightest hint she heard the Doctor and Jack arguing when they thought she was asleep, about how Jack just might have doomed them to freeze to death while the Doctor kept threatening to leave him here on the ice if they actually survived. Rose closed her eyes a little tighter, pressed closer to Jack, and whimpered a little, as if in a nightmare. The Doctor fell silent. Jack shifted a little, studying the Doctor's face, and then curled around Rose again, and she fell asleep there, shivering just slightly even with the warmth of him next to her.

She never talked about how after they managed to get the TARDIS back, something to do with makeshift external controls keyed to Jack's wristband, the three of them tumbled through the doors in a rush, all eager to get back in the heat – Rose had been starting to wonder if she'd ever be able to feel her fingers again. She laughed, finding herself again in the green-gold wamrth of the console room, and spun around to grab Jack and kiss him full on the lips. Before the Doctor could even begin to sulk, she grabbed him, kissed him too, and then went and collapsed on the seat beside the console, too tired to even make the extra effort to get to her room.

She never told anyone that Jack carried her to her room that night, the Doctor following protectively behind. That she grabbed Jack's hand after he set her down, before he could pull back, and refused to let him leave her just yet. That she pulled Jack down to lie beside her, and eventually convinced the Doctor to join them, on her other side. That she spent the night with her back pressed against Jack, his warmth at her back, her face pressed against the Doctor's chest, her palm flat against his cool skin.

That one, they didn't tell anyone. They just remembered, Rose and the Doctor and Jack. Not a secret, just... theirs. The Doctor landed on Women Wept once with Martha, took one step outside, and then turned around, closing the door tightly behind him. "Sorry, wrong planet," he said with a bright, false smile. "Let's try again, shall we? Somewhere with a beach, I think."

Some things you kept to yourself.


End file.
